Weekly Digest #12

Geographer, naturalist, explorer and philosopher. Alexander Von Humboldt was a true polymath and through his wonderful writings, he inspired a new generation of naturalists.

In Views of Nature, Humboldt showed how nature could have an influence on people’s imagination…

Weekly Digest #13

There is a sense of objectivity in the results of scientific expeditions. Mathematical and experimental rigour guarantee it.

But there remains certain subjectivity, told through the individual stories of people, that only become visible if you are looking for it. Kudos…

Weekly Digest #10

An unparalleled act of plunder, avarice and corporate violence.

It was not the British government that began seizing great chunks of India in the mid-eighteenth century, but a dangerously unregulated private company headquartered in one small office, five windows wide…

Weekly Digest #11

Who will dare to write a history of human goodness?

We must remind ourselves again that history as usually written is quite different from history as usually lived: the historian records the exceptional because it is interesting — because it is exceptional…Behind the red…

Weekly Digest #9

Behind every monumental discovery, there are people who, against all odds, made it happen. Few narratives give more than a cursory glance to the stories of the people behind them. In Black Hole Blues, Janna Levin tries to understand the obsessions, aspirations, and trials of the scientists behind…